TERI chief Rajendra K Pachauri sacked by its governing council

Rajendra K Pachauri, director-general of The Energy and Research Institute (TERI), who was charged with sexual harassment will have to step down after TERI's governing council (GC) sacked him and appointed Ajay Mathur, currently director-general of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Government of India, as its new chief on Thursday. The decision comes just a week after Pachauri got the court's permission to resume work as the director-general of TERI's and visit its offices excepting its headquarters at Lodhi Road and its Gurgaon office. Earlier in February, after an FIR was lodged against Pachauri, a local court had stopped him from entering TERI premises.

Another interesting fact is, the governing council's press release was sent by Lexicon Public Relations & Corporate Consultants. Pachauri had hired them specifically for the sexual harassment case.

The complainant, a 29-year old research associate, had first filed a complaint against Pachauri with TERI's Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) on February 9th and later with the Lodhi Colony police station on February 13th while the FIR was lodged on February 18. She had alleged that in her two years of work at TERI she was repeatedly harassed by Pachauri with unwanted sexual advances physically and via e-mail and sms. After probing the complaint the ICC, in May, found Pachauri guilty of misconduct and had asked for disciplinary action against him but that did not happen as Pachauri got the ICC report stayed from the Industrial Labour Tribunal, on the grounds that the probe did not follow natural justice.

While Pachauri steps down five months after the FIR was lodged, the complainant, who worked directly under him, has not been to office and said that the police investigation has been very slow and tardy. While speaking to dna, she expressed disappointment that the GC's statement does not mention explicitly, that Pachauri has been asked to step down for being found guilty of misconduct. "No one has reached out to me till now and the GC's statement does not clearly state the reason for his removal. They should have had the conviction to state the real reason in their statement," the complainant said.

While staying mum on Pachauri's removal, the GC's statement in fact states that the succession issue at TERI was discussed in detail in its September 2014 meeting. It adds that action on the alleged sexual harassment was 'considered' but it will respect court action as it has stayed the ICC report that indicted Pachauri. TERI's GC comprises of high-profile personalities such as Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw chairman, Biocon, Naina Lal Kidwai, country head, HSBC and HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, chairman.

The complainant elaborated on the 'difficult' five months since she filed her complaint, during which her health declined, there was hostile behaviour from senior TERI officials. "I have been on leave since February 18th. I was scared to face people at work. Despite the complaint, he (Pachauri) was still working and I feared for my safety as I was directly working under him. He has a strong grip on his employees and the police have not even been allowed to access his office mails," the complainant said.

She went on to add that she was discouraged from filing a complaint. "The human-resource head interrogated me about why I was filing the complaint and he was also a part of the ICC. He discourage me and in fact asked me to make my parents speak to Dr Pachauri." The TERI HR also tried to shunt her to another division, she said, and denied her the opportunity to work from home while the GC did not respond to her mails. "I had written a mail regarding my complaint to Hemendra Kothari, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Deepak Parekh, Henrik O Madsen and Naina Lal Kidwai. Not only did I not receive a response, none of them acknowledged my e-mail."